This year’s Bhangra Blowout festivities ended in tragedy, as 20 year-old Ranjit Singh was fatally stabbed outside an afterparty for the event, held at the Old Post Office Pavilion in downtown Washington, D.C. The stabbing occurred around 3 a.m., almost an hour after the sold-out party ended according to police.

According to the story from the Washington Post,

after a fight broke out, a 5-foot-8 man of either Hispanic or Indian ethnicity, wearing a white shirt and braces on his teeth, pulled out a knife and fatally stabbed Ranjit Singh, 20, of Phillipsburg, N.J., police said. Two friends of Singh’s pursued the attacker until they were stabbed by him at 12th and Pennsylvania, police said. The assailant escaped in a green car, and Singh’s two friends were taken to a local hospital.

According to the Post article, and an article in the GW University newspaper the organizers capped party entrance at 1250 people, half the amount from the previous year, and had more security than required by the Old Post Office Pavilion. Partygoers also needed to pass through a metal detector because the pavilion is part of a federal complex. I am not really sure what more the organizers could have done to prevent such a tragedy.

When I was at GW, part of the reason BB was so successful was that fights and other such nonsense was checked at the door so that all could revel in the weekend. It wasn’t just about the show or the party, but about people coming together as a group, as one collective, as a sea of sepia youth. Maybe I am just being nostalgic, but we didn’t have to worry about being killed.

GWU said it would conduct a full review of Bhangra Blowout and decide if the event should be run differently, or if it should even continue to be held at all.

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While Nepal’s king does away with elected governance, the Himalayan hamlet of Bhutan gears up to embrace it. The country just unveiled a new constitution, which will convert its monarchy into a multi-party democracy:

King Jigme Singye Wangchuk says the draft will be sent to all 530,000 citizens, asking for their views…The king told the country’s only newspaper Kuensel: “The sovereignty, stability and well-being of the country must be placed above everything else. The country is more important than the king.” King Wangchuk assumed the throne at the age 16, the fourth ruler in the Wangchuk dynasty that came to power in December 1907. The transition began four years ago when the king handed down powers of daily governance to a council of ministers and even empowered the national assembly to force a royal abdication if the motion was backed by three-quarters of its membership. [BBC News]

You can read the constitution on its official web site, presented in both Dzongkha and English. Check out Article 9, Section 2 (via Boing Boing):

The State shall strive to promote those circumstances that will enable the successful pursuit of Gross National Happiness. [Constitution of the Kingdom of Bhutan]

Let’s hope promoting “gross national happiness” means sweet, sweet bourbon will now flow freely out of every tap in the kingdom. If that’s not the case, The New York Times’ travel section offers up a list of Bhutan’s other major selling points.

BBC News: Bhutan unveils new constitution

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Spurned women and distinguished tandoori chefs agree: It’s so hard to find a good clay pot these days. When you do, you best get that piece of ceramic to the altar:

An Indian bride was married off to a pot by her relatives after her groom failed to turn up for the ceremony. Savita took her vows with a clay pot when her fiance Chaman Singh, an officer with the Indo Tibetan Border Police, reportedly got stranded on the border because of heavy snowfall, reports newspaper Deccan Herald. [Ananova]

The newlyweds honeymooned at a local Williams & Sonoma, while Singh vowed to never again date women from the nearby insane asylum.

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In one of DC’s outlying suburbs, 52-year old Kiran V. Kadian was murdered yesterday.

Her husband, Dr. Rajesh Kadian–who has written books about India, Pakistan and Kashmir, angered Gurmit Singh Aulakh, lobbied on behalf of India and appeared on TV for his subcontinental expertise– found her body when he arrived at their home. Kadian was described by neighbors as “a lovely woman, a very devoted mother. She was very religious, spent a lot of time going back to India in the summers.”

From WaPo:

Kiran Kadian was stabbed several times in the upper body, Fairfax police spokeswoman Mary Mulrenan said last night. The couple has lived in the brick house on Thompson Ridge Court, just off Walker Road, since 1992, according to land records and neighbors, and they have two daughters and a son.

The daughters, both college graduates, do not live with their parents, but police said their brother, Jayant, does. Mulrenan said police were looking for the son to be sure he was safe. But the homicide detectives huddled outside his house last night were hoping to ask him questions about more than just his health.

A news report mentioned that there is some concern that Jayant Kadian might “harm himself”, adding to the urgency regarding finding him. The same neighbor who praised Mrs. Kadian stated that she had been trying to secure help for her only son’s mental health.

Police described Jayant Kadian as 6 feet 1 inch tall and 130 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. They said he may be driving a black 1994 Geo Prism with Virginia license plate ZHL-1262.

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StrategyPage reports on the latest goings-on in Nepal and India’s response –

March 25, 2005: India is threatening to blockade Nepal, to force the king to reinstate elected officials in the government. India has used blockades before to force Nepal to do what India wants. There was a blockade in 1989, to force Nepal to not buy weapons from China. In 1974, there was a blockade to force Nepal to stop protesting India’s annexation of nearby Sikkim. But in this case, India does not want to aid the Maoists. It is pretty clear that the Maoists want to establish a radical dictatorship in Nepal, which would be less democratic than the king, and a lot more prone to violence against the Nepalese people. India also has its own Maoist rebels, and knows how violent they can be. But the actions of the Nepalese king are very unpopular in India, and everyone knows that India has the final say, by cutting off the flow of vital supplies to Nepal.

Peace marches and “not in my name” rallies to protest India’s threats have been scheduled by Western activist groups…. details to follow. In the meantime, an earlier Stratpage entry provides some of the background on the 3-way civil conflict engulfing Nepal –

March 9, 2005: Nepal is becoming a mess. The country is split by a three way civil war. There are the monarchists, which include wealthy land owners, and many poor rural people. The country is a constitutional monarchy, but the king still has emergency powers, which not everyone agrees on, but which are being used now. There are the democrats, who are largely urban and educated, who currently cannot figure out how to cooperate with each other on how to deal with the Maoists. Then there are the Maoists, who are led by educated urbanites, and used armed, brainwashed teenagers to terrorize the rural, and then urban, population into support a communist dictatorship. The Maoists want to destroy the ancient pattern of feudal land ownership.

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So what’s your logical next move when the leader of the free world has just humiliated you by revoking your visa and ending any chance of career advancement? Answer: Invite his brother over for…ummm dinner?? From ExpressIndia.com:

Chief Minister Narendra Modi has invited Florida Governor Jeb Bush to visit Gujarat.

Sounding more like a salesman selling Gujarat to the world, more that a wronged Chief Minister who was denied entry to the US, Narendra Modi made the invitation while addressing the members of the Asian American Hotel Owners’ Association in Fort Laurendale, Florida, from his official residence in Gandhinagar on Thursday evening.

He made it a point to avoid unneccessary controversy and mainly spoke about role expatriates in helping Gujarat flourish. Modi said his invitation to Jeb Bush, the brother of the US president, was to give him ‘‘a taste of real hospitality’’.

A tip from SM reader Santosh Daniel leads us to believe that Modi may have better luck enticing some distant cousin of Bush.

He’s young, dynamic and pleasant looking. He’s an entrepreneur who heads America’s second largest medical billing company. Qualities enough to make you sit up and take notice of Jonathan Bush. But what makes this Boston-based businessman even more of a special visitor to Hyderabad is that he’s President George Bush’s younger cousin. While here to look into setting up outsourcing offices, he exclaims, “I love the entrepreneurial spirit here. People are creative, passionate and look you in the eye when they speak. There are no wheels turning in their head.” It’s his first visit to India and he grins, “I took several pictures of me with cows on the road!”

His cousin is not aware that he is in India, as the last time he met him was at the inaugural ball. “Bush had just enough time to enquire about my children. We were much closer as kids. Now he’s this distant older brother who’s busy being President and taking care of his family,” says Jonathan. But he undoubtedly loves his President cousin — “We are a loving and supportive family… [source: Times of India]

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